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Christianity Today, May, 2009 |

UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM

Why We Need Earthquakes

Without them, the planet couldn't support creatures like us.

Dinesh D'Souza | posted 4/28/2009 09:39AM

The problem of theodicy—why bad things happen to good people—predates Christianity. Writing around 300 b.c., the Greek philosopher Epicurus framed the problem this way: God is believed by ...

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TheDoubter

Posted: May 09, 2009 1:01 AM


So plate tectonics must have been put in place during Creation... before the Fall of Man... so the potential for destruction through tsunamis and earthquakes was present before people were created and sinned ... makes no sense. Terrible argument, turns me further away from people's understanding of God.

Ifeanyi

Posted: May 08, 2009 11:00 AM


Strange as it may sound I believe natural disasters are a consequence of the fall of man. If sin did not enter the natural disasters would not have either. That is the understanding I have from scripture.

charity

Posted: May 07, 2009 9:14 PM

ah, the humanity. bonhoeffer talks about how the fall (obtaining knowledge of good and evil, in order to judge right vs. wrong for ourselves) introduced "judgment." everyone wants to judge, for him/herself, what is right, and what is wrong...this is all we know how to do, it seems. and through all the generations, i wonder how far the power of human judgment has gotten us... i love what ravi zacharias says in an essay on human suffering - he points out that a human taking the life of another human, when he/she has no power to give life, is fundamentally different to a being taking life away when it has the power to give that very life back. ravi also points out the mistaken logic of all who would say that this god is surely cruel, he has done nothing to alleviate the suffering of the masses who remain. god DID, and IS ending human suffering. that is the whole point. some may look at that statement as weak; that is your judgment. but are you sure that judgment can be trusted?

Vivian

Posted: May 07, 2009 12:27 PM

Great article to get one thinking. If you study the Bible you see that God uses natural disasters as punishment and as a wake up call to those who reject Him. In present time if you look at natural disaster in this context, we as humans are in for one 'hell' of a ride as the people of this World continually reject Him and his Word. We get what we deserve. If you have the peace of Jesus in your life, you can 'ride' these storms. If you do not know Him, you are going to Hell, and these earthly disasters are not even a 10th of what is in store for you. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved", even from natural disaster, even if you are called Home at that time. God is good, ALL the time.

Jesus is Lord!

Posted: May 06, 2009 5:07 PM


GOD is sovereign and perfect. Earth, nor man can ever emulate HIS awesomeness. While the earth and the people on it may fail... HE alone is absolutely perfect, and can never fail! Trust HIM despite it all...and you will obtain the true peace that surpasses all human (fallible) understanding.

dave	Posted: May 06, 2009 3:44 PM


One point often missed when discussing God allowing suffering is that all suffering in this life will be trivialized by the joys of heaven. Of course, for the unbeliever who has only the pleasures of the present world, this is empty talk... And no, I don't mean to say that we should turn a blind eye to suffering, see Jesus' teachings on prayer and helping others.

VietnamEraVet

Posted: May 06, 2009 3:05 PM


Christianity Today would be well advised not to publish material from this right wing bigot whose extremist views have been repudiated even by members of the conservative movement. Check this out and remember non Christians judge Christians by their actions and associations. How much credence can someone place in a man with such hateful views.. http://www.campusprogress.org/tools/118/

liz	Posted: May 06, 2009 10:28 AM

This article makes one think of God and His power in creating this planet. It is not the plate tectonics, volcanoes, or any other disaster. God is the Creator and He has allowed this planet to become what it is... It is humans who make the 'choices' and sometimes there are consequences, good or bad; death or life... Go back to the Bible to know God and why He may allow these disasters. I like to think that we are not to ask WHY but be faithful to God. Thank you for this article, it is informative and brings some thought processing.

Al	Posted: May 06, 2009 5:28 AM

{Part 2 of 2} ....without a grade and demand that the student start over. So I am amazed that the author presumes that "Ward and Brownlee's answer to this is as simple as it is devastating." Really? Simple, perhaps, but devastating to who? I would be disappointed in any first year Bible college student who could not "devastate" Ward & Brownlee's half-baked theory by simply citing a few scriptures. I enjoy reading Christianity Today and this website. But far too often, CT's editors are asleep on the job. Too many poorly reasoned articles are getting approved for publication. (At the very least, editors should be sending annotated drafts of the more flawed articles back to the authors for revision before publication. This happens with respected scholarly journals even though the contributing authors have excellent credentials. Doesn't the CT audience deserve similar standards of quality? How did this article slip through without a rewrite? At least address the flaws in logic.

NickDLP

Posted: May 06, 2009 1:18 AM


Or God could tell people to prepare for a particular earthquake...he would not have his hands tied if he were real.

David

Posted: May 06, 2009 12:54 AM

wow. the author is trying to explain the present world from a incomplete biblical worldview. human sin is the cause of death & sin resulted in all of creation being cursed. this is another sad example of having to deny thousands of years of judeo-christian understanding when you make evolution a part of your world view. Death & suffering are not good things. Romans 8:19-22 explains why we don't need earthquakes. i don't imagine heaven needing earth quake resistant building codes. the bible & catastrophic plate tectonics are good things for the author to investigate.

Chris

Posted: May 06, 2009 12:24 AM


Dinesh D'Souza's god is too foolish and/or so wantonly malevolent that he couldn't or wouldn't create a planet with happy, Jesus-loving people that didn't also periodically wash away thousands of innocents in tsunamis.

Mark	Posted: May 05, 2009 6:18 PM

Very good article, but the question of preserving free will deserves more attention. God presented man with perfection in the Garden of Eden, and when he deliberately disobeyed, he set off a series of events which made natural disasters possible. Another point which is touched on in the article: God is omniscient; He has all the facts and in His wisdom, He has determined that natural disasters are a part of life (and death) on this planet. As Job discovered, who are we to question what He does?

martinb

Posted: May 05, 2009 12:14 AM

First of all, this answer assumes a fairly standard view of evolution and a modern understanding of the age of the planet. If you think God created the world a few thousand years ago pretty much as-is, then this is a bad explanation. Secondly, there is nothing special about the human form. Some sea mammals are highly intelligent, and there does not appear to be any reason that one couldn't have sentient cetaceans capable of intentional, moral action and therefore capable of evil. (I'm curious if we found that to be the case - or discovered alien life - if evangelicals would try to convert dolphins and Martians.) So, if God wanted to create self-aware life, he could have done so without having created land - or a mechanism to raise land above the sea - on the planet. Also, as others have pointed out, tectonic activity is not unique to Earth and is not necessary for biodiversity.

Riin Rio

Posted: May 04, 2009 11:08 PM


I found this a refreshing argument for the necessity of integrating the realities of the Geo-mechanical complexities of the natural world, the physics if you will, with the metaphysical conundrum presented by theodicy. This world is amazingly dynamic and requires an understanding that embraces and acknowledges powerful temporal processes.

Mitchbert

Posted: May 04, 2009 11:05 PM


Hilarious! Your omnipotent god can't create a mountain without plate tectonics? The only way to "create" diversity is by killing everything? Dinesh, you crack me up!

dc	Posted: May 04, 2009 10:29 PM


you people are morons

john boy

Posted: May 04, 2009 6:33 PM


If you have a being capable of preforming miracles and answering prayer, why does the being refuse to help children being abused. Why would a loving God choose to turn away and alow a monster to abduct, torture, then bury alive a 9 year old girl in Florida several years ago. Please explain this?

PaulP

Posted: May 03, 2009 11:54 PM

Evil is not a creation of man, we don't want that one pinned on us thanks! Nor is it a divine (or diabolical) creation. As for teleology and the Anthropic Principle, these *are* the creations of man. You cannot use scientific data to prove an a-priori conclusion. That is not valid epistemology. So, while speculation is a valid social discourse, it cannot be given the same status as the scientific empirical method. That there is a divine designer is not proven to date. Who knows what we may yet discover, but design etc. should not be something that we set out to prove.

Granny Fran

Posted: May 02, 2009 7:47 PM


"Surely, God could have created a better berry than a strawberry; but surely, He didn't." Old Folk Saying

John	Posted: May 02, 2009 12:29 PM


But that argument still falls short because it suggests that God is incapable of creating a 'perfect' world for humans to develop. This is of course a being that created the universe. Using this logic we must conclude that God also follows a rule set when it comes to creating things and as a consequence is not all powerful etc. Therefore who/what makes those rules for God?

Mogemstone

Posted: May 01, 2009 10:52 PM

The statement "Apparently our planet is unique in having plate tectonics" is not accurate. Earth is the only planet with incontrovertably proven plate tectonics. Several other planets, and moons, have tectonic features which are being studied further. Also, the mechanisms of tectonics (geological materials differentiated by viscosity & density, internal heat source) are present in many planets and in some moons. The presence of these mechanisms (which are largely inherent to planet formation) makes tectonics likely to exist in a vast number of planets throughout the universe. A statement which is comparable (both for accuracy and the underlying mechanisms) is "Apparently our planet is unique in having volcanism". This is utterly incorrect (there are several planets and moons with historic and with active volcanism) for the same reasons (and for specific examples) as the first statement.

Steve Dutch

Posted: May 01, 2009 8:49 AM

Among us geologists, there's a saying: Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings kill people. People die in earthquakes because of badly sited settlements and poor construction. We may need ports in San Francisco and Los Angeles. We don't need millions of people there. But a major quake in either place will not kill anywhere near as many people as a similar quake in Lima, Teheran or Jakarta. Those places have poor construction due to poor environmental stewardship (cutting down all the timber) and personal or societal corruption (building unsafe buildings, bribing inspectors, not having safety codes). And let's not forget the worst failure of environmental stewardship, breeding like gerbils so we crowd into dangerous terrain and put up slum cities larger than many nations were 100 years ago. Most "natural" disasters have a significant human contribution.

A.Yeshuratnam

Posted: May 01, 2009 3:23 AM

When that old serpent Satan slithered into the splendid garden, the first thing he did was to raise misgivings about God’s character and the reliability of God’s word. Satan said, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Christians should realize that Satan is a powerful force. Even Jesus called him ‘the Prince of the world.’ Probably tsunami, earthquake and other calamities would have been caused by Satan himself. That does not mean God is weak. God even allowed His son to be crucified. We do not know the divine mystery behind all these happenings. We get a glimpse of the war in heaven in the Bible when Lucifer was thrown down out of heaven by Archangel Michael. We do not know anything about God’s plan or His secret agenda. But the rebirth of Israel in May 1948 after several centuries of anonymity reinforces our faith in God’s plan. A.Yeshuratnam Trivandrum India.

Anonymous

Posted: April 30, 2009 9:08 PM

The idea that all the natural disasters are needed for human life to exist hold neither scientific or biblical creedability. These events did not occur prior to the fall and would not have. The answer is simple. Man sinned and even nature went crazy. All creation is winding down, de-evolving is you like, heading toward toral destruction and only our Lord's return will spare mankind (at least those who have accepted Him. This is evidence of the fall and should not shake anyone's faith. The great news is, we've read to the end of the Book and know how it all turns out. All glory to God!

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